Moving? Rent First, Ask Questions Later

This is a guest-post from Tim Ellis, author of Seattle Bubble, a blog and forum dedicated to discussing real estate market conditions in the Seattle area. Tim is a long-time GRS reader. During my last trip to Europe, he shared a controversial article on renting vs. buying.

Starting a new chapter of your life in a fresh locale can be an exciting and memorable time, but it can also be rough on your personal finances. Many of the expenses associated with a major move are unavoidable, but there’s one major mistake that is easy to avoid: buying a home immediately upon arriving.

Maybe you’re tired of renting and homes are a lot cheaper where you’re going, or maybe you own a home in your old city and feel like it would be a financial defeat to go back to renting.

In reality, starting by renting when you move to a new city is anything but defeat. It’s actually the smartest decision you can make, both for your sanity and your bank account.

A real world example
In early 2007, a new employee (we’ll call him Ben) was hired to my team at work. Fresh from the midwest, Ben and his wife had owned a home in their old city, and were anxious to buy as soon as they moved to Seattle. I urged Ben to hold off, rent for a while, and get to know the area before making that level of commitment, but they decided to buy a home in a quiet suburban neighborhood north of Seattle.

Fast-forward to 2010: Ben and his wife have realized that the quiet suburban life isn’t their style. They would rather live closer to the city. Unfortunately, their home has depreciated so much that their entire 20% down payment is gone, and they would likely have to come to the closing table with a check for tens of thousands of dollars to sell their home.

Ben and his wife would like to move to a neighborhood that better suits their lifestyle, but now they’re stuck in a neighborhood they don’t really like until the housing market recovers.

Avoid the lure of the new-car smell
Everyone understands and accepts that when you buy a new car, it loses twenty percent of its value the moment you drive it off the lot. Buying a home (used or new) is similar. Even if home prices begin to appreciate regularly again, agent fees, excise taxes, staging, seller concessions, and other random costs add up quickly when you try to sell your home, sucking away about ten percent of the sale price.

There really is no way to know what neighborhood will work best for you until you’ve spent a good amount of time actually living in the area. Consider all the variables at play:

What’s the commute like to your work?

How convenient is shopping?

Is there enough entertainment nearby?

Does the neighborhood feel safe?

Do you like the neighborhood vibe?

Are there sources of noise at odd hours?

Wouldn’t you prefer to rent for a while and learn the area rather than buy right away only to learn after a few months that you’d rather live across town, but you’re stuck for at least a few years (or worse, like Ben) until the value of your home rises enough to offset the selling costs?

Give yourself time to find out what works for you
Don’t be tempted to take shortcuts when it comes to a decision as important as where you will live. You might think that you can do sufficient research online or get advice from people who do live in an area so you can make an informed decision from afar. Think again.

I have some friends who are relocating to the Seattle area. They will be working in downtown Seattle, have kids and about a $650K housing budget. Looking for thoughts on best cities to live in the Seattle area for education, school districts, quality of life, etc. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Each pin on the map represents an answer to this question that was offered by one of the commenters. Believe it or not, the Seattle area is somewhere under that mass of purple. Good luck making any sort of informed decision based on that mess!

The only person that can really know if you’ll like living in a given neighborhood is you. Buying a home is a major financial commitment, and rushing into a purchase before you’ve had time to get to know the area is a recipe for disaster. If you find yourself planning a major move, find a nice rental and take your time learning the ups and downs of your new hometown before you buy a new home. You’ll be glad you did.

I recently moved to a new city/county that I’m familiar with, but didn’t take into account some things that I’m now realizing. Luckily I’m renting.
- The commute is ridiculous to work. Today it took me 100 minutes, when it should’ve taken 30, thanks to traffic
- Shopping is more convenient, but I don’t shop like I used to
- Plenty of entertainment; an amusement park is 2 miles away.
- The apartment complex feels safe, but I’m not sure about the entire neighborhood. Not bad but I don’t venture out much.
- Neighborhood vibe is pretty quiet for the most part.
- There’s 3 train tracks nearby so sometimes the train blows its horn. We also have crying dogs, crying babies, and a 50+ year old who lives with his mom in the apartment under us that plays World of Warcraft during strange hours of the night, yelling and cussing

Couldn’t agree more. When my husband & I moved to a new city, we rented a house for a little over a year. That gave us just the right amount of time to decide where we wanted to live. Then we bought a great place where we’re SUPER happy. Other people that moved when we did and bought houses live much further away from their jobs and are not as close to the things we wanted to be near. I’m so glad that we chose to rent for a year.

I’m pretty surprised to discover just how many people are still leaping into homeownership on a whim. In today’s economy, it seems that people would be a little more receptive to getting a feel for the land before buying a new home in a somewhat foreign city. I know numerous financially independent families who are still happy to rent instead of immediately buy, because the company that they relocated for may end up relocating them again in two years or so. Buying a home is a big step for any family, so why not do the same kind of research that you would do when buying a new car; test drive first.

I have a friend who is moving to a new city for a new job with their spouse and child. I’ve recommended renting, but it’s difficult to make the case for one reason. The rental situation is crazy. Decent places go for $900-1100/month, while for equivalent houses the mortgage payment would come out to about $550/month or so. Even if you throw in all the usual extra expenses, it seems like it makes sense to buy even if they plan on moving away in a years time. What do you think?

@AC- Renting from an individual can get you in trouble if the home is in arrears and is about to be foreclosed on. I know so many people who have rented a home, only for it to be foreclosed on. They are given little notice to move out and often lose their deposit.

I’m not sure what type of apartments are in your area, but where we rent our apartment, you would never have those types of people. We have garages, private stairs, curb side trash pick-up daily, etc… Most in our apartments are professionals and families.

You just have to be careful where you move as far as apartments go. It’s not hard where I live to find fantastic apartments.

My husband and I recently moved from Michigan (where we’d spent 8 years together, and where he’d lived his entire life) to Denver, CO, which is where my family is, but where I have never lived for any length of time.

My aunt, who’s a mortgage broker, was trying to help us find housing, and she suggested that we buy a condo or a small house, but I was very opposed to the idea. Much like Tim said, I had no idea if the places she had found were going to be good neighborhoods for us. It was hard enough having other people check out apartment buildings for us.

I’m really glad we decided to rent, not only because we didn’t really have the down payment for a house together before we moved (what with all the other costs of moving), but also because I found the PERFECT neighborhood about 15 miles south of where we are renting now, and I never would have known that it was there when we were still in Michigan.

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